


Miss Missing You

by ChampionFlyer



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: #1 space dad, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Homesick Lance (homesick for Keef), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Kinda a sickfic, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Platonic Shance, Sad Lance (Voltron), Sick Lance (Voltron), Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Supportive Shiro (Voltron), not really tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-25 21:46:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18171848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChampionFlyer/pseuds/ChampionFlyer
Summary: Life on the Castle of Lions was pretty quiet after Keith left for the blade. The whole team missed him. Hunk missed the way Keith’s face would light up after taking a bite of a new dish. Pidge missed how he offered to help when she couldn’t quite reach some parts of her inventions. Shiro missed how happy Keith would be after he would manage a friendly conversation with Lance. He saw a growing tension between the two but never said anything. It was kind of adorable how the two would gaze at one another when the other wasn’t looking. Shiro missed it all.But he didn’t just miss Keith. He missed Lance too.Or Lance is a sad, bi baby and all the tension makes him sick + supportive space dad Shiro





	Miss Missing You

**Author's Note:**

> (Ignore once again my fucking emo titles but I didn't have anything else to work with)   
> (Plus Fall Out Boy is my bitch)
> 
> Sorry for not posting in a while. I just needed a lil break to get my shit together (another fucking emo reference) (sue me).

Life on the Castle of Lions was pretty quiet after Keith left for the blade. The whole team missed him. Hunk missed the way Keith’s face would light up after taking a bite of a new dish. Pidge missed how he offered to help when she couldn’t quite reach some parts of her inventions. Shiro missed how happy Keith would be after he would manage a friendly conversation with Lance. He saw a growing tension between the two but never said anything. It was kind of adorable how the two would gaze at one another when the other wasn’t looking. Shiro missed it all. 

 

But he didn’t just miss Keith. He missed Lance too. 

 

After Keith left, Lance became more isolated. He was okay for the first week. But then he stopped joking around. It snowballed from there. First, his jokes stopped, then his smiles began to look strained. He stopped asking Allura for tranquilities and started training more. He grew distant. He grew tired. The blue paladin grew worse with each passing week. 

 

Shiro first noticed how bad Lance was getting when he skipped dinner one night. Hunk was so excited to show off his new recipe. But when Lance didn’t show up and his plate grew cold, Hunk’s smile faltered. Pidge, despite only eating a few bites of her food, declared she wasn’t hungry anymore. She had stood up and set her plate beside the Altean sinks before leaving the room. Her face was twisted and solemn like she was trying to remember something long forgotten. Hunk only minutes later excused himself. He said he was going to check on Lance, so Shiro let him go. The growing concern for Lance was swirling in everyone's heads. 

 

Later that night, Shiro had violently woken up to the sound of yelling. He burst out of his room as quickly as possible, bayard in hand, to investigate the yelling. He followed the sounds of his team’s voices to the sleeping quarters. By the time he reached the quarters, he had recognized the yelling as an argument rather than an emergency. He remembers Pidge and Hunk practically wrestling over Pidge’s dolled-up space computer. Hunk was saying something about giving up searching for the night and that there would be plenty of time in the morning. Pidge was yelling about not giving up on Matt. 

 

And in the background was Lance, observing the situation from a distance. He looked exhausted. Eye bags drooped beneath his bloodshot eyes while the dim lights from the green paladin’s bedroom brought out the paleness in his skin. He had his blue lion slippers on but his usual nighttime attire was gone. Instead, he wore a black t-shirt, similar to the one Keith wore, and baggy grey sweatpants. He overall looked terrible. 

 

He looked like he wanted to step in. Say something. He watched his friends fight over the device. It wasn’t until Pidge threw a sloppy punch at Hunk that the blue paladin finally moved from his frozen state. He only sighed before he turned around and walked quietly back to his room. The paladins rolling around on the floor suddenly stopped their fight to watch their teammate retreat to his bedroom. Both wore an expression of guilt and worry. Shiro was far too concerned to be angry with Pidge and Hunk. Something was indeed wrong with Lance. And Shiro was determined to find out what it was. 

* * *

 

Morning training was always on the agenda unless said otherwise. 

 

It was easiest just for everyone to wake up in the morning, eat a good breakfast and train. Individually, the paladins would wake up. First Coran and Allura, because Alteans require very little sleep in order to function. Then Shiro and Hunk. Then Keith and Pidge. Then Lance. 

 

So when the blue paladin was late to breakfast no one freaked out. They all thought it was him finally bouncing back to his normal self. The typical ‘I was late because beauty takes time’ Lance. They all expected him to come waltzing in wearing his face mask and a blue Altean robe like back when he and the rest of the paladins (with the exception of Shiro) were carefree. They expected him to just bounce back. 

 

Time ticked by and breakfast progressed with no sign of the blue paladin. It had everyone one on edge. Shiro quietly sipped his Altean tea as Pidge and Hunk carried out a small conversation. Coran poured Allura a glass of red liquid, looking an awful lot like wine. Soon the conversation stopped between the two paladins and all was quiet and solemn. 

 

“Alright!” Shiro spoke out abruptly, which startled half the team standing in the kitchen. “I’m going to check on him.” Hunk swiveled around from where he was standing beside the Altean stove, sharing a nervous with Pidge as the black paladin stood up and started towards the door. 

 

“Shiro, wait,” Hunk said. He picked up an empty plate from the counter and filled it with the scrambled green food goo. “Here, just bring him some. I don’t think he’s eaten today.”

 

Shiro took the plate with a smile and continued on his way to the blue paladin’s bedroom. Although something was off. Maybe it was the way Hunk voice hitched when Shiro mentioned Lance. Or the way he was so eager to give Lance food. Everything was so orderly around the castle, yet everything felt so off. 

 

So caught up in his own thoughts, Shiro had almost walked right past the blue paladin’s door. The only thing that stopped him from wondering right past it was the sound of metal rattling against metal. It was strange and put Shiro at unease. 

 

Shiro knocked once. Twice. Three times. 

 

No response. 

 

“Lance?” 

 

Still no response. Only the metal rattling. 

 

Shiro sighed, bumping his head against the door. “Hey, buddy? I’m gonna come in. Is that okay?” Shiro asked, only to be met with the same metal rattles and defining silence. He didn’t wait for an answer this time. With the press of a button (and Altean magic), the metal doors slid apart. 

 

The first thing he noticed was a little metal fan spinning around on the floor, which would suggest where the little clanging noise was coming from. In a few strides, Shiro had made his way over to the outlet where the fan was plugged in. He tugged the cord out and the fan came to an abrupt halt. 

 

Next, he noticed the room was 

 

Not like the kind of cold you feel when you stand out in the snow too long. No, this was a dark cold. The kind you feel when you’re alone on a bus at night. It’s only you and the bus driver. It’s almost like you can hear every breath of the opposing person. Soon you get off the bus and look back at the driver. 

 

Quiet. 

 

Dark.

 

Shiro gazed at the empty room. The bed was unmade, suggesting that the paladin had taken his being elsewhere. Although something caught his eye as he scanned the rest of Lance’s bed. A little bit of color popped out from the corner of the soft, blue sheets. Shiro wondered if he should disturb the mess of Lance’s bed and uncover the bright red article from beneath the sheets. His prosthetic arm reached out but his human mind had stopped it. 

 

Shiro thought to himself. He certainly wouldn’t want people going through his room while he was out. Respectfully, Shiro let the matter go. He stared at the bed for a while before his mind was torn from the silence. 

 

A soft whimper came from the bathroom connected to Lance’s room. Shiro was surprised himself that he hadn’t noticed the soft glow of the bathroom light when he first walked in. The door was cracked slightly, letting out one stripe of yellow light. The door gave off an eerie vibe, like a horror film with a murder plot. 

 

Shiro didn’t have time to waste thinking about the possible (but highly unlikely) dangers that might lay beyond the door. He was focused on finding Lance. 

 

Shiro crept towards the door, softly calling out Lance’s name. “Lance?” He whispered once more as he was staring at the door in front of him. He didn’t go in right away, again out of respect for Lance’s privacy. He knocked lightly, his metal arm making soft clanging noises against the old wood of the Altean door. 

 

For some reason, all the bathroom doors were made of wood. The first team meeting they ever held ended in a twenty-minute conversation about the topic. It drove Pidge’s OCD insane. 

 

“Hey, Lance? You in there?” Shiro asked, his voice oozing with concern for the paladin. “I’m gonna come in. Is that alright?” 

 

For a moment there was silence. Shiro wondered if he had been just hearing things. 

 

Then there was a weak groan, which gave Shiro the confidence he needed to know Lance was behind the door. 

 

Shiro forced a small laugh. “Alright, bud. I’m coming in now,” Shiro said, pushing the door inward slowly. The wood creaked as the door was pushed open and the black paladin stepped into the spacious bathroom. 

 

Shiro began making it a habit to observe everything about an area from the moment he walks into a room to the moment he walks out. So the first thing he noticed when he walked in was the scent of peppermint and lavender filling his nose and calming his nerves. 

 

Shiro knew from experience that lavender helps soothe anxiety. When he was first dispatched to the Garrison, his anxiety skyrocketed. One minute he’d be fine, the next he was hyperventilating in one of the stalls in the guy's bathroom. Luckily, the Garrison counselors were kind enough to offer their advice regarding anxiety and even supplied him with more than enough ways to calm himself down. Lavender wasn’t a foreign scent. 

 

The peppermint though was unfamiliar. 

 

Hunk said he used it to calm his nausea or clear his headaches. But it tripled as a lovely holiday scent as well.

 

Once Shiro recovered from the powerful aroma, he scanned the room, taking in every detail until his eyes finally fell on the blue paladin. He felt his own eyes soften at the sight of the poor boy. 

 

Lance was slumped over an Altean toilet, his cheek firmly pressed against the seat. His face was pale but not alarmingly pale. His eyes were fastened shut but his breathing was slow and steady. He had a blotchy face and fever-tinted cheeks, which built to the physical appearance of the blue paladin. He groaned as his eyebrows knitted together. 

 

Overall, he didn’t look too good. 

 

Shiro was pulled out of his trance when Lance’s forlorn eyes fluttered open. Another weak noise escaped the brunette as he struggled to sit up, seemingly not noticing Shiro standing in the doorway. 

 

Shiro didn’t want to scare the boy, if at all possible. But he had to make his presence known one way or another. 

 

“Hey,” Shiro spoke softly, approaching the paladin as if he were a lost puppy. “Lance? Are you feeling okay?”

 

The blue paladin seemed to notice his leader now because he looked up to reveal his bloodshot eyes. Shiro felt a pang in his chest for the kid. You could tell a lot about the situation just by looking at someone’s eyes. Lance’s were brimmed with tears, mixing and pooling with the dark, navy blue of his natural eye color. His eyes used to be bright blue like a crest of a creasing wave. Shiro never noticed the way Lance’s features had changed after Keith left. 

 

Shiro crouched beside Lance and rubbed his back, easing the tense muscles hidden beneath mocha skin. 

 

“Talk to me, kiddo. What’s up?” Shiro asked, his voice torn between playful and concerned. 

 

The blue paladin sighed. “I don’t know. Just feeling kinda sick.”

 

Shiro made a mental note of how exhausted Lance sounded. His voice rough. His tone clipped. Not a hint of enthusiasm in his voice. 

 

“Okay, how long have you been feeling sick?” Shiro asked once more, rubbing over his shoulders and the middle of his back. 

 

Lance’s gaze shifted once more so he was now staring behind Shiro. He didn’t respond right away. He took the time to think about what he was going to say. 

 

“Since last night. Didn’t sleep,” He finally said, propping his head up on one hand and rubbing his eye with the other. That would explain the exhaustion. 

 

Shiro nodded. “Did you get sick?” He asked, moving his hand up to Lance’s forehead, checking for a definitive fever. It was warm and sweaty but if there was a fever, it was very minor. He turned his attention back to the boy, who was still staring blankly at the wall. “Lance? Did you get sick?”

 

Lance sniffled and nodded. A couple of tears slid down his face and dripped into the porcelain bowl beneath his head. 

 

“Okay, that’s alright. It’s okay,” Shiro said, offering all the reassurances he could give. “It’s all over. You’ll feel a lot better in your bed.”

 

Lance nodded again but he couldn’t stop the tears that were coming down so rapidly. His body shook with sobs and uneven breaths. Shiro was a bit taken back by this switch of emotion. It wasn’t like Lance just to fall apart like this, even when he was sick. 

 

“Oh, Lance,” Shiro cooed. “Come’re.”

 

Lance picked his upper body up only to collapsed into Shiro’s hug. He sobbed into his shoulder as Shiro patted his sweaty back. Gentle hushes and quieter sobbs filled the bathroom and echoed off the walls. 

 

Lance calmed down after about ten minutes of back rubs and Shiro’s controlled worries. They somehow ended up pressed against a wall with Lance in Shiro’s lap, his head rested on his relaxed shoulder. Lance sniffled once or twice and wiped an occasional tear from his eye on the sleeve of his Altean PJs. 

 

Shiro let Lance adjust before he pressed the matter any further. 

 

“Okay, kiddo. Here’s what we’re gonna do,” Shiro said, pausing to make sure Lance was listening before he went on with his plans. “We’re gonna get you back to bed and we’re gonna talk. Doesn’t have to be long, I just want to know what’s going on inside Lancey-Lance.”

 

Shiro was hoping for at least a giggle, maybe a sarcastic come back. He got a small huff and a small smile. Half-assed smiles and forced laughter didn’t look good on Lance. But he obligated anyhow. 

 

Shiro eased Lance out of his lap and onto the smooth, pale tile flooring before helping him back up to his feet. The blue paladin groaned but it was more or less out of annoyance rather than discomfort. They walked slowly back into the cold bedroom, Shiro’s arm around Lance’s shoulder offering support as they walked. 

 

The moment Shiro got the boy back to his bed, it was only in his nature to curl up underneath the covers and forget about being sick (and Shiro’s talk). 

 

“Hey, buddy. You can’t fall asleep yet, remember? We have to talk about some stuff,” Shiro said, propping up the pillows behind Lance’s back, giving him the comfortable support to stay sitting upright. He felt another pang in his heart when he saw more tears gather in the brunette’s eyes. His eyes were far too beautiful to be distorted by the glistening salty liquid. 

 

“We don’t have to talk for long but,” Shiro inhaled sharply, placing a comforting hand on Lance’s shoulder. “We’re worried about you. The whole team is.”

 

Lance sniffled and rubbed his eyes before more tears could escape. “S-sorry,” He said. “I d-didn’t mean to make you guys worried.”

 

His body shuddered with small sobs as Shiro sat down on the edge of his bed. He felt himself getting pulled into yet another Space Dad hug. He clung to Shiro, desperately trying to silence his own cries. Shiro offered back rubs and other fatherly touches. 

 

“I-I just m-miss him s-so much!” Lance cried into Shiro’s shoulder. Shiro knew exactly who he was talking about the moment it came out of his mouth. 

 

“I know, buddy. I know,” Shiro whispered. “We 

miss him.”

 

Lance choked on another sob. “Please d-don’t be angry,” Lance pleaded, his grip on the back of Shiro’s shirt tightening. 

 

This took Shiro by surprise. “

 

Shiro combed his fingers through Lance’s sweaty, matted hair. “Lance, why would I be angry at you?”

 

Lance suddenly pulled away from the hug and layed down on his side with his head propped against a pillow. Tears still made their way from his eyes but his breathing was mostly under control. He didn’t look at Shiro. He 

look at Shiro. 

 

He was Keith’s brother. How would he react if he knew one of his paladins, no, one of his friends was in love with Keith?

 

Angry? Disgusted? Offended? 

 

“Lance? Come on, buddy. Help me out here,” Shiro said softly, trying to persuade Lance. 

 

Lance took a long inhale. “I’m in love with Keith,” He whispered, tears sliding down his rosy cheeks and drenching the pillow beneath his head. His steady breathing was turned to sobs once again as he cried out sad apologies and many self-destructive comments. 

 

He didn’t realize it until his cries quieted. 

  
  


“Lance? Buddy… I’m not angry at all,” He said, quite shocked that Lance thought he would be upset about something like this. “I’m proud of you. Both you and Keith.”

 

Lance shot up a little too quickly as dizziness controlled his vision for a short moment. “What do you mean ‘proud of both of us’?” 

 

Shiro laughed a little before opening his arms to envelope Lance in another hug, which Lance gladly took him up on. “What I 

is months before Keith left for the Blade, he came out to me,” Shiro said, massaging Lance’s tense back muscles as the boy layed back down on his side. “He told me that he wasn’t sure what he was coming out as but all he knew was that he liked you.”

 

Lance snorted as a blush crept onto his cheeks. 

 

“His feelings could have changed by now,” Lance said disappointingly. “For all we know he could come back with a much cooler, grizzled boyfriend or… something like that.”

 

“Ehh. I don’t think they changed at all.”

 

Lance rolled his red, teary eyes. “And how would you know that?”

 

Shiro sighed. He had gotten tired of sighing. It made him feel like he was giving up on a much-needed conversation. But he was so far from giving up on Lance. 

 

“In the last communication we had with the Blade, he said that he was considering leaving,” Shiro spoke, watching a small spark of hope ignite in Lance’s eyes. “He said he missed the team. He missed the food goo and the weird Altean documentaries. He missed Red and Black and pretty much everything.”

 

Shiro paused to look over at Lance, who looked struck by the thought of Keith actually coming back. 

 

“But… he missed you most of all,” Shiro finished. 

 

Lance processed the information. He wanted Keith to come back but he didn’t want Keith to give up on the Blade. He’s done so much good just to give up for a person. 

 

“Shiro,” Lance whispered loudly. “I don’t want Keith to just give up on the Blade for me. I’m not worth that big of a sacrifice.”

 

Shiro made a sound of disagreement. 

 

“Honestly Lance, most of the people on this team would give up a whole hell of a lot for you and I know you too would do the same for any of them,” Shiro explained. 

 

“But Keith, he told me he would give up the universe for you.”

 

Lance laughed, his voice coming out small and shy. 

 

“And as I would do the same.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> I was also thinking about switching up my ships a li bit. 
> 
> How would yall like a Ryan Kinkade x Lance McClain sickfic? ;)   
> (If you don't like that idea don't be a little shit in the comments. I ship who I ship)
> 
> IF YOU DO LIKE THE IDEA I WOULD LOVE SUPPORT!


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